Monday 29 October 2007

The body, the mind and the computer

I believe that such issues and subjects are difficult to understand them but also to explain them. Artificial Life, Artificial Intelligent, Robotics are a big dilemma for me. I believe that we advantages and disadvantages. I agree that all these factions will be very helpful to humans (medicine, transportation, education) but on the other hand, could raise important issues such as moral and legally as well.For example, who would be responsible for the death of a cyborg or are we gonna considered them as human beings. Finally, i think that it's a very sensitive issue which needs lot of attention because if we take as paradigm movies such as "The Matrix" or "A.I" then we can understand that some times reality from virtuality are not so far...

Monday 22 October 2007

Vitrual Reality???


We can see that we have virtual worlds as games but also as a community...
The most well-know game is World of Warcraft . World of Warcraft or "WoW" in user's language is a virtual world game which you have to finish some tasks in order to upgraded your character, to keep him alive.

Birth and Death of Cyberculture

Sometimes is funny to think that from something small can come out something big and innovative.

In 1984 William Gibson introduced the term of cyberspace (from cybernetics and space) in his science fiction book "Neuromancer". But what is cyberspace???



According to Dr. Stewart's note cyberspace is:

"A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts...A graphical representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the non-space of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding...". [found at Blackboard Academic Suite]

In my opinion cyberspace is a parallel "world" which runs and "lives" not with the same elements as our world but in different way, more liberal. In the same time it use and needs elements of the real world in order to run.

A very good example, in order to understand cyberspace and the parallel "world", is the movie "The Matrix" A world in which you cannot decide for anything because everything is already fixed from programs and on the same time there is the parallel world in which, you decide for your own life and in the same time you have to separate your mind from your body.

Sunday 14 October 2007

"New" Media Vs "Old" Media????





"New"&"Old" Media.Is any difference?

In this lecture we tried to understand if there is any difference between "new and "old" Media.
Since last year, when i was studying MA Marketing Communications i had also come across with the same dilemma.Which was the right media to use and which was the most effective for each campaign. "Old" or "New" Media? I don't put labels "old" or "new" when i am using the Internet or radio. I only see their influence to me and their usefulness that will provided me. I agree with the "process of socialisation".

"The media are commonly perceived as a form of socialisation. The experience of living in the specific style of industrial capitalism that we do (what is referred to by Anthony Giddens as 'Late Modernity'), has seen a decline in the importance of those features of life that were seen to give meaning and shape to our lives; tradition; the bounded geographic community; religion etc. In their place has arisen new forms of identity and meaning. The media is typically seen as one of these new forms of meaning. It is seen as a unifying force that allows experiences to be shared by millions. The media are seen to provide a sense of commonality between people. It allows us to experience the same things even though we might live miles apart…The media allow many millions of people to understand the world in the same way." Dr. Stewart's notes [found at Blackboard Academic Suite].

At the end of the day we don't have "old" or "new" media but how usefull were for us and that they have almost one purpose: to help people to cumminicate among each other without boundaries.

Finnally, i believe that everything has a start meaning that "new"media is the continue of the "old media. They are the technological improvements of "old" media. Finally, i believe that we don't have to find the difference between "old" and "new" media but to find the common elements which will help us to find more uses of media and to explore the new boundaries that are opened every time that an improvement is coming in a media or everytime that there is a combination of them by creating something new and innovative.

Friday 12 October 2007

Lease Your Body


A new way to advertise..... You can rent your body for advertising purposes. You will have a temporary tattoo in order to advertise a product.
More information in www.leaseyourbody.com

Thursday 11 October 2007

What do we mean by Media and Cyberculture?

I believe that we cant' find an accurate definition about what is media. On the other side there are some elements which can help us to define what is media. According to Dr. Gavin Stewart’s notes:

"Classic 20th century discourse on the media focuses our attention on broadcasting and the mass media. It analysized the 'media' in terms of producers of the media (e.g. institutions like the BBC), texts (e.g. TV Sit-coms) and audiences. This approach has meant that 'the media' have been defined as being synonymous with television, radio and newspapers etc. This approach quite rightly focuses on such issues as means of production, governance and regulation as important aspects of modern life." [ found at Blackboard Academic Suite]

In the same time as Dr. Stewart mentioned in his notes in the first lecture we have some questions rising through this approach and there are some gaps that they need to be filled.

Moreover, the rising of computer and internet technology and the study of Internet has lead us to enter a new era and the term "New Media"

I believe that we can't have a "correct" definition of Media and to be able to answer the question "what is media?". Moreover, i believe that the era of Media isn't an era that is not developing. Every day we have technological improvements which help us more in our lives but not to define "What is Media". I don't believe that we would be able to define specifically the term Media. On the other side we can study and learn from them important things such us the power of the Media, the limits of using them, the ethical questions that maybe rising by using media.

CYBERCULTURE
According to the notes Cyberculture "it can be thought of as the social and cultural effect of the interaction between humans and digital devices such as desktop computers, servers and mobile phones in a myriad of material, social, cultural and political contexts". [ found at Blackboard Academic Suite].
However it is not a simple subject....Lot of researchers have tried to approach it through different angles.
I believe that Cyberculture is not only about a computer or a network but a very interesting subject with roots to every science which is waiting from us to explore it.